Coin-controlled vending apparatus



4 "UNITED y STATES lPATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. HOWE, BUCHANAN, MICHIGAN.

vCOIN-CONTROLLED VENDING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 502,722, dated August 8, 1893.

Application filed February 15, 1893. Serial No. 462,475. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. HowE, a resident of Buchanan, in the county of Berrien and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coin-Controlled Vending Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to lmake and use the same.

The invention has for its object to provide a simple and eicient coin controlled device for'delivering envelopes, photographs, cards, packages and the like; and it consists in the construction hereinafter described and particularly pointed out.

In the accompanying drawings yFigure 1 is a section on a plane outside the operative mechanism of the case inclosing said mechanism. Fig.2isasection on line 2-2 of Fig.

1. Fig. 3 is arear elevation of the upper part 'of the frame and iingers for moving an envelope. Fig. 4 is a partial elevation of a finger on an enlarged scale. Fig. 5 is a plan of a movable stop; and Fig. 6 is a side elevation of a part of the operative mechanism.

Numeral 1 denotes a case or box having glass sides by preference and a top and bottom of metal or any desired material.

2 indicatesa receptacle for envelopes or the like and is provided with a movable cover 3. This receptacle has preferably glass sides also and is without any bottom other than the top of the case upon which it may be fastened in any convenient manner. Envelopes or cards are indicated at 4.

5 denotes a carriage or frame provided with envelope-movingfingers 6 adapted to movein slots 7 in the top of the case. The carriage has upper and lower wheels grooved to fit and run upon ribs or rails 8, 8. The fingers 6 are adjustably supported in a cross bar 9 attached to the carriage. These ngers are rounded on their upper ends and are hollowed in front substantially as indicated to adapt them to engage the edge of a thin article like a cord. They are adjusted by means of a screw thread connection with the carriage which adjustment adapts them to considerable variations in the thickness of cards and ting the, power of the spring to the carriage.

Said pinion is fast on a crank shaft 14 which together with the fusee and spring drum are supported upon brackets or ben'ts 15. The particular devices for supporting these parts are not essential to all theadvantages of the invention, nor is the particularkind of motor.

Upon shaft 14 is fixed an arm 15 which at its outer end is provided with a stud or fricltion wheel 16 adapted to move in the slot 17 formed in the part of the carriagewhich connects the wheels. This crank arm is adapted to be moved entirely around and in such movement to force the carriage and the envelopemoving ngers forward and back to push out an envelope from the bottom of those in the envelope box and to return the fingers to their initial position immediately in the rear of the envelope next above the one discharged. The fingers are not moved suficiently far forward to escape from under the envelopes. Their rounded upper surfaces adapt them to slip back under an envelope without catching into it and the tip of each is hollowed out to adapt it when moved forward to embrace the rear edge of the envelope.

18 denotes a sliding detent loosely fitting a pin 18 fast on the rock shaft 20 and normally held in the path of the extension 16 of the crank stud 16 by the weighted lever 19 on said shaft 20 as indicated in Fig. 1. This detent is adapted to be withdrawn from the path of such extension 16 by the rocking of the shaft to which the weighted leveris iixed. Said detent has its free end movably supported in the upper end of an arm or bracket 21 connected to the posts 22 which latter support therock shaft and operating lever. The forward end of this lever 19is^arranged to IOO play freely up and down in the oppositely situated slots 23 of a coin chute 24. Thelatter has a coin receiving mouth 25 and an inclined discharging floor 2G leadingto an opening in the iioor of the case beneath which is secured a coin box 27. The front end of the lever is bont or curved upwardly so that when situated in the bottom of the slots alittle below the inclined floor it will not project above said fioor as a straight lever might do unless the slots were extended farther down to afford more room for such lever.

To operate the device the mechanism being in the position illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 a coin is dropped into the chute with the effect to tilt the lever and rock the shaft 20 whereby detent 1S is withdrawn from the extension 16 of the stud on crank arm 15 and the spring, if such motor be employed, is'thereby left free to move the carriage and fingers and push an envelope from its receptacle. As soon as the lever is relieved from the weight of the coin which passes out of the chute at the bottom of its inclined lioor the forward end of the lever will ordinarily be raised to its initial position, by the overbalancing weight on its opposite end, but to insure this operation under all circumstances the following described devices are provided: To a strut or bracket arm 2S is pivoted a bar 29 adapted to rest loosely upon stud extension 16 and of such length that its outer curved end will pass off'from said stud when the latter is raised to its higher position preparatory to advancing the carriage and it is arranged substantially as shown so that said extension will underrun and lift it as the crank is moved backwardly in its revolution. The bar 29 has a lateral arm 29 bent as shown to extend under lever 19. As bar 29 is raised by the stud extension 16 of the crank arm the arm 29 is moved into the path of the front end of lever 19 and raises it, if for any cause it has not been moved up after being depressed by a coin.

To save expense the carriage frame and the several supporting brackets can be stamped out of sheen metal and parts of these bent or formed at the same time or subsequently7 as found desirable.

It is not essential that the finger supporting carriage or frame be provided with the particular nu mber of wheels nor that the track or tracks for the same be disposed exactly as shown nor that a spring motor be employed to secure all the advantages contemplated by the several improvements.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is-- 1. In a coin controlled apparatus the combination of a case having aslotted top, tracks interior-ly situated at the top and bottom of said case, an envelope receptacle situated above said top having a narrow slot at the bottom of its front side, fingers projecting through said slots in the top of the case and devices for moving the fingers to push an envelope out of the receptacle consisting of the carriage with upper and lower wheels, the tracks and a motor for moving the carriage back and forth, substantially as set forth.

2. In acoin controlled apparatus a carriage provided with a delivery finger and with upper and lower track wheels and havingaslot 17, a carriage moving arm l5 provided with a stud or Wheel movable in said slot and with a laterally situated pinion, a spur gear mesh ing with said pinion and a motor, all combined substantially as set forth whereby the carriage is moved back and forth.

3. In a coin controlled apparatus a carriage provided with a delivery finger and with up per and lower track wheels and having as lot 17, a carriage moving arm 15 provided with a stud or wheel movable in said slot and with a laterally situated pinion, a spur gear meshing with said pinion,a fusee and a motor consisting of a spring coiled about the axis of the fusee, all combined substantially as set forth whereby the carriage is moved back and forth.

4. In a coin controlled apparatus a carriage provided with a finger made adjustable to adapt it to extend above the edges of objects of different thicknesses and having its front hollowed to embrace said edges in combination with a'receptacle and a support therefor slotted to permit the passage of the nger, substantially as set forth.

5. In a coin controlled apparatus the lever 19 and its shaft 2O in combination with a motor, a slotted earriage,acarriage moving arm 15 and a sliding detent 18 said shaft being provided with a connection with the detent whereby when it is rocked the detent is Withdrawn from the outer end of the said carriage moving arm, substantially as set forth.

6. In a coin controlled apparatus the case,

the parallel bents 15 fixed in said case, the

spring drum, the fusee, the gear Wheel, and the pinion, each having its axis provided with journals having bearings in said bents, the arm 15 fast on the axis of the pinion and connected to move the finger carriage and said carriage movable in a plane at the side of the bents, substantially as set forth.

7. In a coin controlled apparatus the case, the parallel bents 15 fixed in said case, the spring drum, the fusee, the gear Wheel, and the pinion, each havingits axis provided with journals having bearings in said bents, the arm 15 fast on the axis of the pinion and connected to move the finger carriage and said carriage movable in a plane at the side of the bents, the posts 12, the counter-balanced 1ever 19 journaled in said posts and situated on the side of the carriage path opposite the carriage-moving mechanism and a carriage detent :rendered inoperative by the movement of the lever under the influence of a coin, substautially as set forth.

8. In a coin controlled apparatus the coin controlled lever, a crank shaft and arm, mechanism adapted to revolve said shaft and arm, a pivoted bar in the path of the crank said IOO IIO

502,722 L y s bar having a lateral arm adapted to underrunA and lift Athe lever to its initial position after it has been depressed by'a coin and to be dropped from the crank arm at or nearits highest elevation, substantially as setforth.

9. In a coin controlled apparatus the coin chute having its front and rear walls slotted and its oor inclined and having a slot in its edge at the foot of said inclined floor, the le- Ver adapted to be moved in said front and rear slots, and mechanism for positively raising said lever in the slots after it has been 0perated by a coin,substantially as set forth.

10. In a coin controlled apparatus the coin ing witnesses. f

CHARLES A. HOWE. Witnesses:

HERBERT Ron, J. B. RYNEARSEN. 

